Seitan with Coriander Peppercorn Crust

This is totally a "Me Too! Meee Tooooooo!!!" dish.

Veggies get left outta some really delish holiday cooking traditions - Ham at Xmas, Turkey at Thanksgiving, Lamb on Easter, and let's not forget Corned Beef 'n Cabbage on St. Frat-er-Patty's Day. Are there myriad delish, less carnagey things to eat on those hallowed days? Yes. But sometimes, it's killer to slice into a roast - carving knife in hand, two-pronged fork carefully distributing pieces of (in this case) a savory, peppery loaf of wheat protein. Retro in a 70s cookbook kinda way.

For moi, this is also a memory meal - 9 years old, at my girl Heather's house (the same year I learned that trespassing in a tree nursery guarded by a 90 pound Rottweiler is a good way to end up with a hole in the bottom of yer pants), her wiry/red haired Ma pulling tons of cabbage and beef out of their seemingly hot-tub-sized crock pot. Beef was not something we ate much of at my house, so it was a pretty exotic meal, and this year, I decided to try it veg-style.

And thus we have Crock Pot Cabbage and Corned Seitan
serves 4, easily

for the seitan:
Dry mix:
2 1/2 cups vital wheat gluten
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1/4 cup soy flour
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
3 tablespoons veggie beef boullion powder (like dees)
Tons of freshly ground black pepper

Wet mix:
1/2 cup water blended with 10 cloves roasted garlic until the garlic completely dissolves
4 tablespoons earthbalance, melted
2 tablespoons flavorful olive oil
2 tablespoons tamari
1 tablespoon molasses

Crust:
1/4 cup black peppercorns
1/4 cup whole coriander seeds
1/2 cup all purpose flour
Oil - aerosol form preferred, but you can gently brush the roast with a basting brush if you need to.


to accompany:
1 large head green cabbage, cut into 6ths
4 large carrots
4 medium potatoes, pricked all over with a fork


for the crock pot:
1/2 cup dark beer
4 cups water mixed with 4 tablespoons veggie beef boullion or tamari (or more water - depends on the size of your pot. If you increase, stick with the 1 tablespoon tamari or stock to each cup water ratio)
4 sprigs parsley
2 bouquet garni made from 1 tablespoon black peppercorns, 1 tablespoon coriander seeds, 1 tsp celery seeds, and a couple whole cloves each - either wrap them in cheesecloth or use a tea bag

Phew. Looks far more complicated than it is, trust me! Let's go.

Mix your dry seitan ingredients in a medium mixing bowl and blend your wet ingredients together in your blender. As you massage with your left hand, slowly pour the wet into the dry and, using both hands now, knead the seitan until it is uniformly blended and comes together into a loaf.

Put your carrots in the bottom of your pot and sit the seitan on top of them. Add your bouquets, potatoes, parsley and cabbage, nestling them in around the seitan.

Pour your tamari or stock/water mix over everything, and your beer. You want to start with cold water so the seitan has a chance to brine a little bit. Make sure that the top of the loaf is covered.

Check for salt levels - the surrounding broth should have a slightly salty taste. Cover and cook on low for 4 hours.

Preheat your oven to 375f.

Pull the seitan out of the pot carefully and let dry just a little bit on a cutting board over the sink. Whiz your peppercorns and coriander in a blender or spice grinder until it's pretty fine, but not powdery. Dust the seitan  with the flour and rub it in just a little, then press your peppercorn/coriander into the crust. Spray lightly with your aerosol oil, put the loaf into a oiled baking pan, and bake for 45 minutes, occasionally spraying it with more oil.

Looks a bit like an asteroid... a delicious asteroid.

Slice thin and serve with the taters, cabbage and carrots. The EarthBalance gives this a slightly more tender, softer texture than using purely oil. Very tasty. Don't be afraid to reduce a bit of the cooking liquid with a little cornstarch for a simple gravy, if you'd like.

Crunchy, savory, lovely. Enjoy my darlings!

Luxurious Mushroom-Seitan Moussaka

This is my nerdy holiday dish.

Nerdy, because it's complicated, and delicate.

Holiday, because it's impressive, very rich, and goes best with 30 degree weather.

It's a definite undertaking - you'll want to start a day ahead if you're following the recipe exactly. But the layers of soft, yummy seitan, mushrooms, tomatoes both fresh and dried, nutmeg and cinnamon, and let's not forget the towering layer of fluffy, decadent, rich bechamel, well, it's guaranteed food coma, but yum yum yummy. A dish to tell your vegetarian friends that you love and appreciate them. Or even argue that meatless food can be as deeply flavorful as meatfull.

Just make sure there's salad nearby. Or simple, blanched green beans.

Mushroom Seitan Moussaka

For the seitan:

2 cups vital wheat gluten
1/2 cup tapioca starch
1/2 garbanzo flour
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1.5 tablespoons fennel seeds, whole
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
1 tablespoon roasted garlic powder
1 tablespoon parsley
1 tablespoon freshly fround black pepper
1 tablespoon smoked salt
You can add other herbs here, if you'd like: rubbed sage, thyme, ground rosemary. I just stuck with the above this time.

1/2 cup olive oil + dash truffle oil
6 tablespoons tamari
1 tablespoon molasses
1 tsp smoke flavoring
2/3 cup water

4-5 cups water (plus 6 tablespoons tamari) or veggie broth
4 bay leaves
10 cloves garlic
1 red onion, sliced

A medium-sized crock pot

Mix your dry ingredients well and make a well in the center. In another bowl, mix your wet ingredients. Using a fork or your fingers, mix continually while pouring the wet mix in, until the dough balls up. Knead in the bowl for a minute, until everything is well incorporated.

Layer the onion in the bottom of the pot and place the seitan on top. Pour broth around the roast and add garlic cloves and bay leaves. Cook on low for 4 hours.

Usually, I make the seitan the day before and let it sit in the warmish broth all night. Makes for soft, but firm.

For this next step, you'll need:

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
Canola oil, to fry

Using the chopping blade on your food processor, mince the seitan. Cut it into small, uniformly sized pieces first, then pule 4-5 times until the mixture has been broken down into mostly small, quarter-sized chunks. Do this in three batches to keep things uniform.

In a large bowl, mix the seitan with the flour until well-coated on all sides. Add a little more flour, if you need to.

Heat your canola oil in a heavy skillet over medium-high heat and add half of your seitan. Press down into the oil and let it cook for 2-3 minutes, until browning has occured. Flip the seitan carefully and press into the oil again, cook for another 2-3 minutes, then drain on paper towels. Repeat with other 1/2 batch.

For the rest of the filling, you'll need:

1 20oz can crushed tomatoes
1/2 cup sundried tomatoes in oil
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 small red onion, minced
1 handful white raisins, chopped fine
1 stalk celery, minced
1 tsp cloves, ground
Several grates fresh nutmeg
Several grates cinnamon
Red wine, 1/2 cup
Smoked salt, tsp (or to taste)
Dash sugar or molasses

2 medium yukon gold potatoes, sliced thin
2 pounds baby bella mushrooms, sliced thin
2 tablespoons butter
4 cloves garlic, minced

Heat the sundried tomatoes and their oil in a small saute pan or skillet. Add the onion, celery, and garlic, and cook 3-4 minutes, until the onion is translucent. Add the cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, and cook until fragrant, 1 minute. Deglaze the pan with the red wine and simmer off the alcohol, about 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes, 1/2 their juice, the raisins, and 2/3 of the seitan. Mix well. Add sugar and simmer mixture about 10 minutes, until very thick.

In a separate pan or skillet, melt the butter. Add garlic and mushrooms and toss to coat. Cook over medium heat until the mushrooms have released their liquid and it has evaporated, about 18-20 minutes, stirring often.

For the bechamel topping, you'll need:

3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
2 cups whole milk, warmed
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup gruyere cheese, finely grated
4 egg yolks
Grated parmesian or extra gruyere, to top

Melt the butter in a skillet or small saucepan. Add garlic and salt. Add flour and whisk until flour turns golden, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in warmed milk. Return pan to heat and whisk mixture until it thickens, 3-4 minutes. Add cheese and whisk until mixture is very smooth and cheese has totally melted. Remove sauce from heat and stir in yolks, breaking them up and mixing them in thoroughly as well. Set sauce aside, covered with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming.

Assemble and bake:

Preheat oven to 375f.

Butter a deep 8x8 baking dish. Layer potatoes on the bottom, followed by mushrooms, then seitan mixture, then bechamel. Cover and bake 30 minutes until bubbling: add remaining cheese and bake uncovered 20 minutes more, until top has browned a bit and bubbling has ceased.

Let rest 15 minutes before slicing and serving, otherwise it'll be mess.

Alternatives abound:

Sub sliced, salted eggplant, 3 large, roasted for 10 minutes in a 350f oven for the Seitan mixture.
Use double the mushrooms (4 pounds) and create the tomato sauce with them instead, adding diced carrot, celeriac, or fennel as well.
Use yogurt and egg yolks for the topping for a lighter version - but still top with the parmesan.
Pureed silken tofu, lemon juice, and nutritional yeast, mixed with a little egg replacer and corn starch, topped with breadcrumbs, is a suitable vegan topping. Bake the entire casserole uncovered for the full 50 minutes if you go this way :)

Holy Mole. Yeah, I said it.

How amazing is it that the oft-described-as Masterpiece of Mexican cuisine is traditionally vegan? Well, minus the stock. Which is easy to addend.

Not only is it amazing. It is awesome too.

You know I've been on this tamale kick. And as much as I adore that soy chorizo, I really wanted to do a filling from scratch. Like food-nerdy, raw ingredients only, all the way from scratch. So I figured I'd mess with my seitan recipe, try to "porkify" it a bit - a little fattier, smokier, some sweet notes. No sage, thyme, pepper, let the Mother of All Sauces handle all that. And ideally, I'd be able to shred it with a fork, as traditional pork tamales are made.

Alas, that last part didn't happen. But the flavors were pretty damn amazing, if I do say so myself.

I made a change from the last batch of masa I'd used, and it's an unhealthy one. Tamales, like most "peasant" food, are traditionally a catch-all for certain leftover materials, so lard is often used in the dough. I'd heard from a pal (and read on the innernets, of course) that veg shortening was a reasonable substitute, so that's what I used this time. Differences? Compared to corn oil, a key one - the masa was lighter, fluffier throughout, near pudding consistency. So good. Not like any of us need to be chowing down on hydrogenated oils but for a special treat, do try.

If I had to pin down a few essential flavors for mole, they would be first smoke, then sweet, then spice. So everything you eventually throw into your blender needs to get a layer of char, first. You can do that with your gas stove or your broiler. But that means toasting almost every seed, every pepper, dry or no, every nut that goes down the hatch. Laborious, but worth it, trust me.

Seitan Mole Tamales


For the seitan, you'll need:

2 cups vital wheat gluten
1/4 cup tapioca flour
1/4 cup soy flour
4 cloves garlic, crushed and minced
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp smoked habanero powder
2 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon brown sugar

Wet mix:
1/2 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons soy sauce
6-8 dashes or 2 tablespoons smoke flavoring
2 tablespoons molasses
1 cup water mixed with mock beef or mushroom boullion

To simmer:
4 cups water
2 tablespoons Mock beef or mushroom boiullion concentrate
3 bay leaves
6 cloves garlic, peeled

Mix your dry ingredients thoroughly, and make a well in the center. Mix your wet ingredients in a measuring cup. Using a fork first, then your hands, slowly pour the wet into the dry, working the dough as you pour. When you've emptied all of the liquid, use both hands to knead the seitan for a few minutes, until it comes together, then roll it into a short, squat cylinder.

In a wide pot, place your seitan (cut it into two pieces if need be) and pour your stock mixture over. Bring it all to a boil. Cover and simmer 1 hour.

No cheesecloth here, dears! You want a lighter, less dense seitan. Also, putting the seitan in while the stock is cold gives it a better "crust" (thanks for the tip, PPK!).

We'll come back to the final seitan prep once we have our mole done, giving the flavors time to blend.

Now. Onto the Mole.

This is an alteration of a Chow recipe. The only two animal products they suggested using were pork stock and lard - they've been replaced with veggie stock and oil. I've also removed a couple steps and skipped any straining. Blend the sauce long enough, and it'll be super-smooth.

5 dried guajillo chiles, stems and seeds removed
3 dried ancho chiles, stems and seeds removed
5 garlic cloves
1/2 onion
5 tablespoons sesame seeds
1/4 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
2 cups reserved seitan cooking liquid, to be used as needed
3 Roma tomatoes
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/3 cup raw pecans
1/4 cup raw pumpkin seeds
1/2 ripe yellow plantain, peeled and sliced into 1/2-inch-thick rounds
2 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil
1 corn tortilla
1 ounce bittersweet chocolate
1.5 tablespoons salt, or to taste
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

In a dry skillet, toast your chilis until they have a bit of char on both sides. Set aside.

Toast your sesame seeds, tossing, until they're a bit brown. Set aside.

In a baking pan, put your tomatoes, onion, and garlic cloves. Broil 5 minutes, until they're all got a bit of char. Set aside.

In your skillet, heat 2 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil. Saute your plantains until they soften a bit, two minutes per side. Set aside.

Toast your thyme and oregano very gently in the same skillet, about 30 seconds. Set aside.

Put your tomatoes, onion, garlic, seeds and nuts into a blender. Puree until smooth, about 2 minutes. With the motor running, add your chilis one at a time. How much stock you add here is up to you - you want to maintain as thick a consistency as possible while keeping the blender running, so add a little bit at a time until your sauce is moving again. Add your herbs, the plantain, and the tortilla, and blend until the texture is very smooth, about 5 minutes - there will still be tiny bumps, but they'll be very small.

Heat the remaining oil in your skillet and pour in the contents of the blender. Saute until fragrant, about 5 minutes. Add your chocolate and stir until it blends in completely. Taste for salt and sweet, adding either sugar or salt until you're satisfied.

For the Masa:

3 cups masa for tamales
1 cup vegetable shortening
3 cups vegetable or mock chicken stock, warmed
2 tsp baking powder
Salt to taste

With a whisk or hand blender, beat the shortening until it's fluffy. You could also use a stand mixer here, if you have one, with the paddle attatchments.

Using a fork, mix the masa, salt and baking powder. Make a well in the center. Slowly add your stock while mixing with your fork, continuing to work the batter until it's uniform. It'll be pretty wet, no worries!

While continuing to beat the shortening with your mixer or whisk, add the wet masa by handfuls until you've emptied your bowl. Beat on low until everything's well blended. The dough will be a little wet and very spongey. Set aside.

One last step for the seitan:

Slice your seitan into 1/4 inch wide strips and drain on a paper towel. In a large bowl, toss the seitan with about 1/3 - 1/2 cup flour, evenly coating the strips. The flour coating will give your faux-pork an awesome crust.

Heat enough oil in a skillet to cover the bottom of the pan. Add your seitan in batches (took me 3) and fry until browned on each side, about 3 minutes. Drain, again, on paper towels.

Chop your strips roughly, into pieces less than an inch long. Mix your chopped seitan with the entire batch of mole in a bowl and set aside.

Bring it all together, finally:

You'll need:
30 corn husks
A steamer, or the set up described here
Dexterity and a hungry belly!

Tear 3-4 husks into strips to tie your tamales with. You'll need 20-25.

Flatten a husk on a cutting board and using your hands, grab 1/2 cup masa. Smooth it into a rectangle in the upper-center of the husk. Press about 1/4-1/3 cup mole into the center of the masa, and using the sides of the husk, roll the filling into a package. Then roll the husk around the package, fold up the bottom and tie it with a strip of husk. Here's that pictoral how-to from last time. Set upright in your steamer or pot.

Repeat until you've made 20-24 small tamales. Cover with remaining husks and lid.

These cook for about the same amount of time as the previous batch I told you about, but will look a little softer when they're finished. They are amazing. Enjoy them with a little soy sour cream or salsa, or plain, if you can even call a mole tamale that. Viva el Tamale!

Curry Yuzu and Mushrooms, plus a recipe for longbeans.

It's lightbox night, ya'll!

Remember that wad of Shiso leaves I bragged about last weekend? Well, the first thing I felt like doing was re-familiarizing myself with their taste, since it had been a while since last I noshed on shiso. So a pesto seemed in order, something with some sesame and garlic, lightly. Over those awesome beans!

Longbeans in Shiso Pesto

Quickest side ever.

1 pound longbeans, ends trimmed, washed thoroughly
12 fresh shiso leaves, torn to pieces
1 scallion, chopped
1/4 cup sesame seeds, white
1/4 cup olive and sesame oil, mixed to taste (I used about half of each, to keep the sesame taste a tad light)
Freshly ground Szechuan pepper, 3-4 grinds
1 tsp salt
2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Put everything but the beans in a blender and pulverize it all, pushing down the sides with a scraper as needed, until a uniform texture is reached. Set aside in a bowl.

In a large wok, heat the veggie oil to medium high, almost smoking. Add your beans and stir fry for 2-3 minutes, until they soften a bit. Add your pesto and toss, mixing well, and continue to cook 2-3 more minutes, until the herbs are very fragrant. Either serve as is or transfer to a cutting board and chop the beans into pieces, to facilitate easy face-stuffing.

While I do love me some vegetables, and beans in particular, the consensus was that we needed something more substantial. I'd bought some yuba a couple of weeks back from my uber-favorite asian grocery and I figured I'd do something with that. Yuba is the skin left from the soymilk making process - very chewy, tres cool. You've eaten it if you've ever had "vegetarian fish" at Buddah Bodai or other vegan (read: Buddhist) dim sum places - it's usually rolled and braised and has an awesome texture.

I wanted curry, however.

So we went with stewing it in a quick panang. Turned out rather like large, chewy noodles. Tying it together with some mock duck and mushrooms (and carrots! cabbage!) made it a pretty special dinner.

Curry Yuba with Mushrooms

Yup, that's the yuba, underneath all that veggie, scallion, shallot, hot sauce goodness.

1 pkg yuba (dried bean curd skin)
1 can mock duck or chicken (gluten, available from most asian groceries)
2 scallions
1 carrot
1 small piece red cabbage
2 portobello mushroom caps
1/2 green pepper
1 can coconut milk
Dash palm sugar
Salt to taste
2 tablespoons panang curry paste
2 tablespoons vegetarian oyster sauce (available at most asian groceries)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tsp Sriracha
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 pointer-finger sized chunk of ginger, grated
2 tablespoons sesame oil
Fried shallots, Garlic Chili sauce, fresh scallions, to serve

Fill a large, rectangular container or baking sheet with warm water and soak your yuba until it softens, about 5 minutes. Cut it or tear it into long pieces and set aside in a bowl.

In a small pot, boil your coconut milk and add any flavoring agents you'd like to use (I keep lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves in my freezer, so I tossed some in) as well as your curry paste, sugar, and salt. Stir well and simmer for a few minutes. Remove leaves and stalk, if using, and add your yuba - simmer for another 10 minutes. Set aside to steep.

Julienne all of your veggies and heat your sesame oil in a wok over medium-high heat. Slice your mock duck thinly. Toss your garlic, ginger, veggies, and scallion into the wok and stir fry until the carrot shows signs of softening, about 5 minutes. Add your oyster sauce and soy sauce, plus Sriracha, and stir well. Cover with a lid or pizza pan (can you guess which I use? hehehe) and let simmer for 5 minutes. Remove cover and toss vegetables until they dry out a bit, another minute or two.

To serve:

Spoon some yuba and curry into a bowl. Make a well in the center and tong some of the mushrooms and gluten into the middle. Garnish with hot sauce, scallions, and shallots (and hey, why not, some peanuts mebbe). Munch with chopsticks, then spoons. Yum!

Hail Gluten

Time for a "staple" recipe: my obsessed-over, cobbled-together-from-multiple-sources-and-trial-and-error seitan sausage recipe. Started with the Millennium Cookbook's Spicy Fennel Sausage Recipe, which was a tad chewy to me, added some tapioca and soy flours, changed the flavors a bit, and ooh-la-la, it's vegan sausage heaven.

Pros: delicious, especially fresh outta the pot. High protein. Freezes perfectly. Cons: a little rough on the digestive system. Cranky to fry (but doable).

Got some gumbo planned? Seitan sausage. Ragu? Seitan sausage. Grillin' with the homies? Seitan sausage. All you need is a couple hours, a couple bucks worth of ingredients, and you're golden. Break it out at brunch to blow some minds.

Makes 8 servings, or 4 logs.

You'll need:

Dry mix:
1 pkg (about 2 cups) vital wheat gluten
1/4 cup tapioca flour
1/8 cup soy flour
4 cloves garlic, crushed and minced
Fennel seeds to taste (I use a tablespoon or more, but hey, I love me some fennel)
1 tablespoon cumin
Ton of fresh cracked black pepper
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp smoked habanero powder or chili powder - increase if you wanna spicy
1 tsp dried sage
1.5 tablespoons salt

Wet mix:
1/3 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon smoke flavoring (optional)
1 cup water

Cheesecloth, 1 package
Kitchen twine
8 cloves garlic, peeled, set aside
Bay leaves, 4-6
Cloves, a few
Whole black peppercorns
4 cups stock, or 3 cups water + 1 cup soy sauce

Do eet:

Mix the dry mix and wet mix in separate bowls, the dry in a larger bowl. Slowly pour the wet mix in while kneading with your mitts (no spoons or whisks allowed!). Knead until you've got a relatively well-mixed wad of seitan. Cut into 4 pieces if you'll be stewing or slicing - 6-8 if grilling.

Preheat yer oven to 400.

They'll resist, but roll them into somewhat sausage-shaped hunks. Cut your cheesecloth so that it is as wide as your snausages, and about 2 feet long. Wrap those mothers up, keeping an inch or so on either side. Tie the ends with your twine, double knotting. You can leave a little room on the ends, but you want pretty neat little packages.

Lay your sausages out in a single layer in a large baking dish (alternately, you can braise them in a large pot - make sure to keep them covered and simmer in the above bath, covered, for about an hour). Place your flavorants around them snugly, tucking cloves and bay leaves betwixt and between. Pour your stock over it all, cover with a lid or foil, and bake for 1-1.25 hours, depending on how thick you rolled your sausages.

You'll end up with some tasty stock at the end, which will help keep your sausages fresh in the fridge. And don't you dare throw those braised garlic cloves away.